Greetings From Detroit

It’s a couple of hours before Game 1 here at Comerica Park on a brisk day in Detroit, with temperatures expected to drop into the 40s tonight. Bob Melvin just had his pre-game press conference, and it was interesting to hear him recall his days with the Tigers — his first major-league club — in 1985. His first game in Tiger Stadium, as it happens, is a vivid memory I share with him.

The A’s were in town, I was covering the team for the Chronicle, and I found a seat in the lower deck to escape the sky-high location of the press box for a few innings. Tim Birtsas, a big left-hander they called Baby Huey, was on the mound, and he threw an up-and-in fastball that hit Kirk Gibson flush on the jaw.

“I was on second base,” Melvin recalled, “and I remember Gibson laying there, bleeding, refusing to come out of the game. The trainer was trying to get him back to the dugout, but he wanted to stay in.”

Snarling, pushing aside anyone in his way, Gibson showed what “playing hurt” is all about. And he actually took his base, still bleeding profusely, before he was led off the field.

“There’s so many great things about playing in Detroit,” said Melvin. “There was a buzz in that old Tiger Stadium like nowhere else. And it was a great feeling, putting on that white uniform with the Olde English ‘D.’ Usually, your first thoughts (as a rookie) revolve around yourself. That one embodied what that whole team was about.”

NOTES: While the A’s look to Coco Crisp as their catalyst, the Tigers have an intriguing answer in Quintin Berry, batting second and starting in left field tonight. He didn’t have a tremendous year (.258), but he stole 21 bases in 94 games and forced his way into the lineup on the basis of his speed . . . Correction from this morning’s column on Yoenis Cespedes: Josh Reddick became the A’s first 30-homer man since 2006, not the first of this century. Nick Swisher and Frank Thomas each surpassed 30 in ’06.